The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Circuits in many electrical and electronic devices can be powered by batteries. Referring now to FIGS. 1A-1B, a battery 10 may output a voltage Vdd to a circuit generally called a load 12. The load 12 may draw varying amounts of current from the battery 10. The voltage Vdd may vary depending on the amount of current drawn by the load 12. Additionally, Vdd may decrease over time as shown by line 20 in FIG. 1B as the battery 10 gets used.
When the load 12 instantaneously draws a large amount of current from the battery 10, Vdd may drop or dip momentarily before returning to a value that is less than or equal to Vdd. Momentary drops in Vdd are called voltage spikes in Vdd. The amount of drop in Vdd may be proportional to the amount of current instantaneously drawn by the load 12.
For example, the drop in Vdd may be small (i.e., the voltage spike may be small) as shown at 22 when the amount of current instantaneously drawn is small. On the other hand, the drop in Vdd may be large (i.e., the voltage spike may be large) as shown at 24 when the amount of current instantaneously drawn is large.
Thus, voltage spikes in Vdd momentarily decrease Vdd. When voltage spikes decrease Vdd below a threshold voltage Vthreshold, a reset may be triggered that resets the load 12 as shown at 26 and 28. Large voltage spikes may trigger the reset even when the battery 10 is relatively new as shown at 26. On the other hand, small voltage spikes may easily trigger the reset when the battery 10 gets relatively old as shown at 28. Thus, limiting the drops or voltage spikes in Vdd may minimize triggers that reset the load 12 and may increase life of the battery 10.